Coming of the Apocalypse
by Kai Ramirez
Summary: ***CHAPTER 4 IS FINALLY UP***. Why do the horsemen want Emma? and who's the girl? R/R. Fame or Flame. Constructive commentary always welcome.
1. DEATH

Run! Have to Run! A small girl ran. She was about fourteen, with blond hair and blue eyes. An average looking, part of the family girl. She wore ordinary enough clothes. A green tank top and blue jeans. The top even had a flower on it. She ran as fast as she could. As fast as her legs would carry her. Oh God! Run! She ran into an alley, down into a back street and hoped a fence gracefully, into a garden. It was an average, white picket fence garden. She scanned the place carefully. Swimming pool; child's sandbox; garden shed. She went back through the list. Nothing, she surmised. Nothing of use, anyway. She heard rustling as a black silhouette gracefully leaped the fence. She couldn't make out the figure properly, but she knew exactly who it was. He, or it- she wasn't quite sure- had followed her for several days now. She had only left home a few weeks ago, due to her mutation. She had to run. She had been running ever since. But never more so had she needed to than now. She had spent some time with a friend, another mutant, under the metro lines, where they met the interstate. While there, she had gone off to steal some food. In just a few weeks, she had gotten quite good at it. When she had returned, she had found a body, who she had to assume was her friend, then a black figure literally came out of the shadows on the wall. She remembered what he had said:-  
  
"I am death. He who kills Death, becomes him. I have become Death, and so it shall remain forever more." This was quite cryptic in it's own right, but then he had a change of tone altogether. "Hello child. . . Come say hello to the reaper man." She didn't say hello. She ran, but he had constantly been there. He was in her dreams as she wept in her sleep, he was on the buses that she hitched rides on, and he was even in her, tormenting her as she ran.  
  
Now, he was in a white picket fenced garden, a family garden. And he had come for her. He stepped into the garden as a security light came on, illuminating him. He had armour made of bone, enwrapped in a cloak of darkness. His face was completely covered in a hood made of the same darkness. When he raised his head slightly, she swore she saw stars where the eyes should by, glowing like supernovas under the hood, yet it just made the rest of him seem darker. He pulled out a scythe from the middle of nowhere.  
  
"I thought we'd try something a little more traditional." She saw white gleaming teeth, very clean, and very deadly looking, as he smiled a large smile. His teeth were filed down to needle sharp points.  
  
A dog ran up to him, barking from inside its cage. The girl hadn't noticed it before. It barked loudly, definite guard dog material. It snarled. . . until death looked at it. His smile faded, his eyes glowing. The dog stopped and began to whimper. Death's eyes glowed brighter than ever, creating pure white light from under his cowl. The scythe blade glowed blue as well. He swung it at the animal and the air around him strobed for a millisecond. When the spots cleared from the girl's eyes, she saw the cage, completely undamaged, with something that may have looked like a dog, as a charred mess on the floor. Death returned to his other state as she looked at him.  
  
"Your turn girl. Are you ready?" He swung the scythe at her. Now was a good time for her to use her powers. Her eyes rolled up into the back of her head as she moaned- not used to the full extent of her powers, or whether it would work. The scythe struck and she too, became a charred mess. Death looked around for a moment, shrugged when he saw no-one, and reached up for his hood. The sounds of bones scraping together and the pop of bones relocating, came from him. He lifted the hood to reveal a tanned young man, with black hair and ice blue eyes. He smiled, revealing a full set of perfectly normal, and unusually clean teeth. He looked around some more, looked at himself to see a pair of blue denim jeans and a black top. People in the house came running out, one of which had a shot gun.  
  
"Shoot him," the woman said.  
  
'Death' stared at the man holding the gun. The man took the gun and put it to his wife's temple, staring blankly all the while.  
  
"Wh. . . what are you doing? No!" The gun fired and the woman's crumpled body fell to the ground. 'Death' stared at the man again and smiled brutally. The man put the gun in his mouth and fired, landing next to his wife. 'Death' grabbed the shot-gun from the floor and pumped the rest of the shells out of it. By now, more lights were coming on in the surrounding area. He looked around once more, then jumped over the fence and ran. 


	2. WAR

A woman walks into a bar. She stands in the entrance for a moment, silhouetted by the sunshine that breaches the shadows of this dank outhouse of society. Many men, truckers and bikers mostly, turn to see a red haired young woman standing in the doorway. She wore a red dress, that seemed to have a mini-skirt but also looked long and elegant, even though her thigh was very visible. She clutched a small handbag, which was also red, and made her way to the nearest bar stool. She ran her finger along the seat, to release dust into the already rank air. She sneered in disgust as a biker to her left tried it on.  
  
"Hello Darlin'," he said in a gruff Canadian voice (no offence to gruff Canadian voiced people). She swivelled on the bar stool to face him. She crossed one leg over the other, which got several glancing looks.  
  
"I advise you don't speak to me and just get on with drinking," she replied in a refined European Accent- perhaps French. The man was just about to answer back when his eyes opened wide, his mouth gasping for breath. His face went a deep shade of red and he fell on the floor, trying to gasp a response. Another man, who was behind her, saw her smile and grabbed her shoulder, spinning her around.  
  
"I don't know who you are but. . . what the fuck?!" Her hair literally was red, not ginger, but now it had changed to a deep blood-red. Her eyes were red as well. No pupils or iris. Just pure blood-red. She stared at the man who had grabbed her then at another man. Both men turned to face each other and began to fight, one with a bottle and the other with a pool cue, both drawing blood with every blow, as if their skin was made of paper. Flames flared up from the corner of the room, next to where the beer barrels were being stored. The woman's hair was now aflame, and her eyes burned in anger. Now, all the men in the bar were fighting. Killing each other, was more like it. She, however, hadn't moved off of her stool. She finished her drink, stood up casually, and slowly walked out of the bar, in the same seductive walk she had walked into the bar only five minutes earlier. Her hair and eyes had returned to normal and she casually walked down the Mexican highway that she had walked down for the past three days. The bar exploded behind her and a bush fire started. She carried on walking, in the direction of California.  
  
The flames receded- well, reversed, as if being sucked into the ground- leaving the scorched remains of the bar and the surrounding area. The damage could have been seen from 14,000 feet up. She had been called many things in her time, mostly Mexican names, as she spent most of her time there: Los Diablos, La Cucaracha, and the jersey devil. All of these names were good, but she preferred her official title. She carried on walking, smiling. . .  
  
14,000 feet up. The Mexican countryside. A recently deceased bush fire could be seen below. The scorched shrubbery spelt out a word. That word was WAR.  
  
Sorry for the delay, and for such a short chapter, but I only want to introduce one character at a time. Two more horsemen to go, and they're not the ones you expect. Keep reading. 


	3. CARNAGE

Shalimar Fox stood above the crowd at the club. She leaned over the balcony to get a better view.  
  
"Sit down, would you?" Emma spoke over the noise. "You're making me nervous."  
  
"What's to be nervous about?" Shalimar turned to face her teammate and her friend. "This is the first night off we've had in ages." She smelled the air. Some smells were rancid, others were alright. She breathed out and caught a sense, as if someone were concentrating on masking his or her scent. They knew when to release it so Shalimar couldn't catch the scent. But she had. Just.  
  
Emma on the other hand, was busy eyeing some of the members of the band playing. They had a blond woman on drums and a brunette on keyboards, but it was the men that she was looking at. There was a bald black man on the bass and first vocal, a bleach-blond man on the lead vocal, a black haired man on the lead guitar and a tanned man with blue-dyed hair on the stunt guitar and second vocal. They had started playing 'The Kids Aren't Alright' by 'The Offspring'.  
  
When we were young the future was so bright  
  
The old neighbourhood was so alive  
  
And every kid on the whole damn street  
  
Was gonna make it big and not be beat  
  
Now the neighbourhood's cracked and torn  
  
The kids are grown. . .  
  
Emma noticed something odd about the man on the stunt guitar. He didn't quite seem to fit in. It could have just been his hair, but there was something in his manner, like he saw himself higher than everyone else. She was going to say something, but when she turned around, she saw that Shalimar was already staring at him.  
  
. . .Jamie had a chance, well she really did. . .  
  
Shalimar frowned as, to her, everything slowed as she took the scene in. In an instant, everything was clear. It was the guitarist who was masking himself from her. But why, and how.  
  
The guitarist did a high solo that hurt Shalimar's ears, her sensitive hearing picking up the squealing that he was also causing. Purposely. She saw him look up briefly and smile as he glanced at her wincing slightly.  
  
. . .Fragile lives, Shattered dreams.  
  
The guitarist put his guitar on its stand and walked over to the bar, where a brunette walked over to him and started flirting with him.  
  
"You okay Shal?" Emma seemed concerned.  
  
"Wh. . .what? Yeah. My ears hurt a little but that's all." She continued to look at the guitarist. There was just something about him. He and the woman walked out of the club together. Shalimar shrugged and went back to her drink. She finished and went to the bathroom, telling Emma to go get the car so they could go home.  
  
Emma got to the door and the brunette who walked out with the guitarist came running back in, bumping into Emma.  
  
"Sorry," she said. "Forgot my bag." She headed to the restrooms.  
  
Emma walked down the street until she stopped at an alley. A pair of legs stuck out from a group of garbage cans. They belonged to a body. The body of the brunette who had left the club with the guitarist. The brunette she had. . .just. . .met. . .back. . .? Shit! Shalimar!  
  
Shalimar looked at herself in the mirror, flashing her eyes between their normal and feral state.  
  
"Human. Mutant. Human. Mutant." She stopped when a brunette walked in. She stood at the sink next to Shalimar, looking in the mirror. Shalimar sighed.  
  
"What's your boggle?" the woman said.  
  
Shalimar smiled. "What's a 'boggle'?" she asked back.  
  
"I use stupid words quite a bit," she answered. "It cheers people up. See?" She pointed at the mirror and Shalimar looked in it to see she was smiling. She glanced over to see that the woman had no reflection. How could she miss that? She heard stones tapping on the window. She looked out to see that it was Emma, throwing stones to get her attention. She opened the window.  
  
"Shalimar! Run! There's a brunette in the club who's a fake!" Emma saw a flash of green, as if an eerie green light had been switched on and then off quickly.  
  
Shalimar turned around to see the guitarist standing there. He punched her squarely in the chest. She flew out the window and landed heavily on the fire escape. A storm started and the raindrops brought Shalimar back from the edge of unconsciousness. She saw the guitarist. His eyes flashed like Shalimar's, only green, not yellow. And the area around his eyes glowed.  
  
"Bloody good weather for it, ain't it?" He spoke with an English accent and sounded like a cockney. (A/N He sounds like Spike from Buffy but I can't pinpoint his accent and I'm from England)  
  
Shalimar saw Emma had gone to get the car and had driven back to the back of the club. Shalimar launched away from the fire escape as the guitarist slid down the fire ladder, gracefully. Shalimar landed on the car and quickly got in. The guitarist walked over to the car and began to speed up into a run as they drove off.  
  
"Who does he think he is, Robert Patrick?" Emma yelled (A/N Robert Patrick played the T1000 in Terminator 2 and Agent John Dogget in the X-files).  
  
"I've got an idea," Shalimar said. "Let him get three feet from us, then brake.  
  
Emma saw the plan. She did this. But, instead of knocking himself out, he jumped and ran over the car. He stopped a few feet ahead of the car.  
  
"He wants to run over us?" Emma said. She revved up the engine and slammed on the accelerator, releasing the handbrake. "Then we'll run over him!"  
  
Again, this didn't have the desired effect. Instead of running him over. He held out his hands and stopped the car dead, giving both girls whiplash. This didn't help the broken ribs that Shalimar knew she had. That was from the punch, not the landing.  
  
He began to tip the car and the two girls dived out before he flipped it completely. He left the car upside down and walked over to Shalimar, grabbing her round the throat so she couldn't breath.  
  
"A little message. From Carnage!" His accent had gone. His voice demonic. The rain just sliding off of him. He dropped Shalimar and left, blending into the shadows of the night. He could have killed her right then and there. But he just left. 


	4. CHAOS

Thank you to hanna, Tigresblanco, Slea, Jouliana (yay. You read it.), and caroline for reviewing.  
  
Tigresblanco: I'm not trying to keep the chapters far apart, I just did the stupid thing of doing too many fanfics at once so I'm a little behind but I'm not starting anymore and I'll have all of these finished.  
  
caroline: Of course it's a Brennan/Shal fic. What else will do?  
  
Jouliana: Hello. Sorry to take so long with 'Xtreme measures' but I'm stuck for how to start the next chapter (any ideas will be helpful). It's nearly finished anyway (don't worry. It's part of a trilogy). As for the horsemen, I don't like the idea of Famine and Pestilence as they would have crap powers in my opinion so I chose the four horsemen from an Alternate Reality from the Marvel Comic X-Men (although the characters who represent them are mine).  
  
Sorry to all for any confusion (*mutters* perhaps I should've explained that in the last chapter?)  
  
"I'm telling you that this guy ripped the car apart!" Shalimar was in hysterics.  
  
"Shal! One man can't do that!" Brennan looked at the wreckage of the car.  
  
"She's telling the truth Brennan," Emma stood behind him. "I was there."  
  
"But. . ." Adam interrupted Brennan.  
  
"There have been reports of mysterious things happening, by people, claiming, to be the four horsemen of the apocalypse. See for yourself." He led them into the main chamber at Sanctuary and accessed the computer. Several Proxy Blue reports came up of missing children, bars exploding in Mexico, and, the latest incident. A person tipping a car outside a nightclub.  
  
"Jesus Christ! That's him!" Emma pointed at Carnage, who stood there smiling, standing on the training platform.  
  
"Calm down Emma," Adam said. "It's only a holographic representation I made of him from his different appearances. Just like the others." Adam never took his eyes off of the screen. Emma looked at the other representations. A tanned man with black hair and unusually clean teeth, a red haired woman in a red dress, the blue haired man she knew as Carnage, and a small blond man with green eyes.  
  
"Yes. . .Mmm. . .So far. . ." Adam was busy at the computer and made little sense. "So far, I've managed to locate these three 'mutants', if you can call them that."  
  
"You don't think they're mutants?" Jesse had joined them from the gym.  
  
"They don't fall into the categories. The woman seems to be an Elemental but she has other powers too. The black haired man seems to have some sort of molecular power, but again, he has other powers too. The man you met last night seems to have Feral powers but he too, is different. I've never seen anything like it."  
  
"What about the blond guy?" Emma asked.  
  
"What blond guy. I said there were only three?"  
  
"Then who's that?" Emma asked. She turned around to see that the blond man was moving around in the training area. First he looked at the red head, trying to look down at her cleavage. He then went in between the two men and proceeded to do macho poses with them, pulling faces all the while. He then stood side on and started clicking his fingers, and humming, as if in a barbershop quartet.  
  
"What the. . .?" Brennan hit the force field and the training area went into lock down.  
  
"Puhlease. . ." There was a flash of light from inside the training area (imagine Q from Star Trek teleporting).  
  
"Pathetic." The man was now on the stairs, looking down on them.  
  
"Positively rude, I'd say." He was now behind them, sitting cross-legged on the base terminal (anyone who's seen Mutant X knows that this is a red thing that sticks out by the stairs that gives off little holographic images but Shalimar often uses it to lay down when she's bored). The members of Mutant x spun round.  
  
"Hello." He waved and smiled.  
  
"Who the fuck are you?" Brennan didn't like this guy.  
  
"Isn't it obvious?" he said, standing behind Brennan.  
  
"I'm the fourth horseman." He was now on the ceiling, standing upside down, perfectly relaxed.  
  
"I'm Chaos!" His voice resonated around the room. It lost any accent it had before. For a second, no one could find him. Then they turned around to see him choking Emma. Brennan went to electrocute him. . .  
  
"Well that's clever, mister Mulray. Hit me. . ." his voice went from dark, to normal, then back to dark. ". . .You hit her."  
  
Shalimar tried it the old fashioned way. She punched and kicked but he was as solid as a rock.  
  
"Die, Emma DeLauro!" He screamed triumphantly. Suddenly. . .  
  
. . .He stopped strangling her as a small figure appeared between Emma and himself. When Jesse Kilmartin 'phases', he goes partially see-through. This is what the girl looked like now. She was about fourteen and wore a green tank top and blue jeans. The top even had a flower on it.  
  
"Stop!" She said.  
  
"What's this?" the man's voice returned to normal. "A girl? Or a ghost?"  
  
"Astral projection. Your mate 'Death', came after me so I used my powers before he could kill me. I piggy backed off of him until he met up with you and then piggy backed off of you."  
  
"Clever." He turned to Mutant X. "I can't kill DeLauro, not with girls present." He turned back to the girl, bowed, and disappeared. The girl drifted a moment, made a decision, then fell backwards, into the limp body of Emma.  
  
"What just happened?" Jesse Exclaimed.  
  
______________________________  
  
That's the end of THAT chapter. Next up. Find out the truth. 


End file.
